Two out of three on this list were streamed on Netflix, but three PBS shows from the summer make it into the top four. There is only one recent film from the library (The Hundred Foot Journey), which is rated fairly low. Library holds on some other recent movies should be coming through, but nothing worth holding breath for; there just are not that many good mainstream movies being made.
Last Tango in Halifax(Season Three) – 2014 (3.1). During the third season of this Brit series a
main character leaves and a new one comes on while the entwining of the lives
of the other characters gets deeper. As we spend more time with these people we
learn some surprising things about them and our feelings toward some change,
just as in real life. With one exception the developments in the stories do not
come from out of the blue but rather from new understandings about what we
already knew, or thought we did.
Closure – 2013
(3.0). Well made on a modest budget, this documentary tells the story of the
wife of the director. The African American woman as a one year old became the
first adopted child of a very loving Washington State white couple with another
daughter born to them seven years earlier. They subsequently adopted two more
children. In her mid-twenties the woman decided with the support of her
adoptive family and husband to try to find her birth parents. Using some
partially redacted papers from the adoption agency in Tennessee and clever
Internet searching, the woman and her husband figured out who her likely birth
father was. The family went to meet the birth father who was pleasantly
surprised to learn he had a child, especially since he believed he was sterile.
His family was delighted too. But the birth mother, revealed by the father, was
another story. She had led a very troubled life and hid the birth from her
family, including from her other children and she was not prepared to meet her
past. The movie sensitively shows all the people involved and wisely lets the
story tell itself.
Poldark (Season One)
– 2015 (3.0). Forty years ago the Brits
made a miniseries about this late eighteenth century hero of a group of novels.
With a bigger production budget and better TV movie technology the new version
is much more visually dazzling, but the best aspect is still the story and the
acting. In fact the original, though dated, feels more intimate because of the
confined sets. A minor provincial aristocrat imprisoned during the War by
American revolutionaries was thought to be dead, but returns and finds his
sweetheart is engaged to his cousin and his financial affairs are in desperate condition.
Identifying more with the cause of the poor working class people, he re-opens
his copper mine, fights the powers that be, finds a new love and struggles to
overcome all manner of adversities. This is a story that will still ring true
in another forty years.
The Crimson Field
– 2014 (2.9). The Brit miniseries about nurses at a field hospital in France in
the early stages of WWI showed that even after 100 years the horrific effect of
war on soldiers and the medical people who attend them is dramatically
compelling. The cast is probably better than the writing, with each nurse
turning out to have her own secrets and the various characters developing
friends and enemies, but there will be no chance to go to further depths as the
series was cancelled after one season.
Mile…Mile & aHalf – 2013 (2.9). A not too young group of artists decide to hike 211
miles of the John Muir Trail from Yosemite to Mount Whitney and film their
journey. Trekking over passes and through valleys the hikers are constantly
surrounded by spectacular scenery as they encounter various other hikers who
join their group. This is a road movie on foot, a scenic travelogue, a showing
of old and new friendships and a quietly powerful argument for preserving
wilderness.
The Impostor –
2012 (2.9). At first this documentary seems to be jumping around too much but
then we begin to understand that it is telling a story from two viewpoints, a family
looking for a thirteen year old boy gone missing in Texas and a young man in
Spain three years later who may or may not be the boy. Soon we realize we are
in a mystery in which the only person we know is telling the truth is the one
who admits he is lying. Some authorities are duped but others seem to have
figured it out – but we then begin to wonder whether there is even more to the
story and whether the full truth will ever be known. The clever way this film
is structured holds our attention throughout.
Breath of Freedom
– 2014 (2.8). The crash course in Jim Crow and Civil Rights history is
necessary for context, but the heart of this Smithsonian TV documentary is the
archival footage of African American soldiers in Europe during and after WWII
and the interviews with some of these men (and in a couple cases with their
German wives) in their senior years. Experiencing the different way they were
treated in Europe was for these men, as the movie title indicates, a breath of
freedom. Many of them went on to play important roles in the civil rights
movement.
On the Way to School
– 2013 (2.8). Four sets of poor young
rural children, in Kenya, Morocco, Argentina and India are followed on their
long daily or weekly journeys, unaccompanied by adults, to attend school in
this French documentary. There is no narration and little written information
is provided; the dialogue of the children and those they encounter carries the
sound track. This would be good to watch with children from about 8 to 13 so
they can see how much school means to these children and what their life is
like; the subtitles dialogue is fairly minimal affording a good introduction to
foreign movie watching.
Beware of Mr. Baker
– 2012 (2.8). Archival footage, incentive animation, interviews with family and
colleagues and extensive interviews with the man himself prove that Ginger
Baker is a tremendously talented drummer and an even bigger a-hole in this
documentary. It was always only a matter of time, sometimes very short, before
the drug enhanced serious psychological troubles of this man devastated his
professional and personal relationships. Nobody speculates what is at the heart
of his problems, but everyone agrees he is a seriously messed up man who
happens to be one fantastic drummer.
25 to Life – 2014
(2.7). A little hard to follow at first, this documentary eventually tells the
story of a black toddler in Philadelphia who received a transfusion in the
hospital which gave him HIV. His father was a no show and his mother decided to
keep the infection a secret so the boy could live what was expected to be a
short life without the consequences of being stigmatized. We meet him in his
mid-twenties and learn the full tale through interviews and interactions
between him, his mother and various relatives and friends. He became an
anonymous teen HIV peer, a sexually active college student and eventually a
fully identified advocate for safe sex, as he worked through his personal
identity problems without the benefit of professional personal counseling.
Living on One Dollar
– 2013 (2.7). Two American college boys and their two man film crew travel to a
small village in Guatemala and live for two months on one dollar a day to
experience life like the locals in this short documentary. The Americans are a
bit naïve but their sincerity is clear to the locals, whose sense of community
proves that it does "take a village" to raise a child and care for
one another. This movie would be good for American school children to watch.
The Hundred FootJourney – 2014 (2.7). Another over
produced and CGI indulgent movie from Spielberg et al, based on a first time
story about Indian food coming to a small town in southern France in the form
of a refugee family setting up for business across the street from a Michelin
starred French restaurant. A supposed message about overcoming racial prejudice
(ergo Oprah one of the producers) is overwhelmed by the culinary material in
this formulaic waste of a good director (Hallstrom) and cast (including Helen
Mirren).
To Be Takei –
2014 (2.7). Star Trek actor and gay rights activist George Takei is the subject
of this documentary profile which uses archival footage, interviews with acting
colleagues and extensive footage following Takei and his husband on their busy
schedule. The documentary exposes many of the factors that have made George who
he is but there are still several unanswered questions and we don't know if
that is because the film maker did not ask them or if George was reluctant to
answer them.
Of Human Bondage –
1934 (2.6). Young Bette Davis fought hard to get this role of a scheming
cockney waitress who ruins the life of a promising medical student. Expectedly
dated, the only reason to watch this movie is to see Bette chew the scenery as
she degenerates downward from a pert flirt to a derelict reject. Her large eyes
are famously busy on the screen, but her hands are also put to work subtlety portraying
the nervousness of a schemer. Meryl Streep has carried on this hands business in
her acting.
30 for 30: Broke
– 2012 (2.4). Citing a Sports Illustrated article about highly paid
professional athletes going broke, this ESPN movie attempts to investigate
further and document the story. Unfortunately all that is provided is an
unorganized revolving myriad of athletes telling anecdotes and some advisory
types repeating the same type of anecdotes. Save time and fast forward to the
ending credits for a list of famous athletes who have filed for bankruptcy.
The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though
some of the streaming rights may now have expired):
Closure
Mile…Mile & a Half
The Impostor
Breath of Freedom
On the Way to School
Beware of Mr. Baker
25 to Life
Living on One Dollar
To Be Takei
Of Human Bondage
30 for 30: Broke
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